Commercial Observer: C-PACE Lending Grows as Regulations Evolve

Commercial Observer - Nearly a decade since the commercial real estate industry’s first Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) loan securitization, the financing vehicle has experienced wide-scale growth both in the size and the scope of deals.

C-PACE financing, which is typically structured as fixed-rate, 30-year loans funded by a special assessment on the property tax bill, has grown well beyond its early roots of mainly fostering sustainability upgrades. It is now often used to spur new construction and serve as a credit enhancement in the capital stack for borrowers to recapitalize and refinance past debt in a higher interest rate environment.

The many borrower uses for C-PACE have fueled sharp growth, with 2024 producing a record-breaking year of $2.42 billion in originations across 214 deals, according to data from PACENation, a nonprofit advocacy group for the industry. While 2025 numbers are still being finalized, PACENation’s preliminary data shows that volume will far exceed the 2024 numbers given more than $10 billion of cumulative originations.

Peachtree Group, an early adopter of C-PACE debt, closed the largest retroactive C-PACE financing with a $176.5 million loan in August 2025 to fund renovations to Dreamscape Companies’ 2,520-room Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, completed in 2024. The deal, which marked the biggest financing executed by Peachtree in the company’s 18-year history, enabled the borrower to pay down a senior loan for the project.

“Retroactive C-PACE has become a bigger part of the C-PACE story where people are utilizing it almost like rescue capital,” said Greg Friedman, managing principal and CEO of Peachtree Group. “This gives the ability to help recap and help stabilize the property from a capital structure perspective.”

Read the entire article on commericalobserver.com.

Key Takeaways

• C-PACE lending is reaching record scale. Originations hit a record $2.42 billion in 2024, with industry volume expected to surpass that significantly as borrowers increasingly use C-PACE for new construction, refinancing and recapitalization.
• Peachtree is helping drive industry growth. The firm has originated nearly $2 billion in C-PACE financing across more than 150 transactions, including the largest retroactive C-PACE loan to date—a $176.5 million financing for the Rio Hotel & Casino renovation in Las Vegas.
• Regulatory changes are expanding opportunities. More states and municipalities are broadening eligible uses for C-PACE, including adaptive reuse, resiliency improvements and retroactive financing, creating new pathways for owners to access long-term, fixed-rate capital.

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Learn more about Peachtree Group's C-PACE lending here.